


A Nice Picture

by CJ1027



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 02:14:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13537533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJ1027/pseuds/CJ1027
Summary: Harry is shaken by some unexpected news.





	A Nice Picture

“Harry?” She calls his name cautiously, recognizing his rigid body language as a warning.

“Brilliant,” Harry says through gritted teeth. “It’s...that’s...brilliant,” he stifles out.

Ginny, unable to stand it, snaps. “Doesn’t sound like it.”

Harry hears the hurt in her voice, still avoiding eye contact. Ginny grabs his hand and gives it a squeeze. Harry accepts it but doesn’t give one in return. “Look at me,” she demands.

He musters up the courage to look at her face, and there’s the ever telling blazing look. His eyes remain on hers for a moment, and then he lets go of her hand and stands up. “I just...I need some air. I just need some air,” he repeats, striding towards the door that leads to the yard.

The sound of the door slamming is how Harry’s chest feels in that moment. Slamming over and over again. He isn’t ready for this. He just isn’t.

It’s a cool summer night. Harry lays down in the grass, letting the summer breeze bring him some calm. He suddenly feels guilty storming out on Ginny like that, a lump in his throat forming as he replays their conversation. Teddy had been with them earlier. It was a perfect summer day. Teddy had taken on Ginny’s hair color as they were eating ice cream. The thought had come into his mind, fleeting, but still existent. It wasn’t difficult with Teddy, most of the time.

But he’s his godson. Not his son. It was different; it had to be.

What if he was bad at it? What if he never figured it out? What if he didn’t know how to be a parent, and so he let his own kid be detached? Or if he was too overbearing, trying to make up for the life time of missing father-son memories of his own, and then they resented him? Even worse, what if a new dark wizard targeted them because of him?

Harry muddles through these thoughts without coming to any resolve for the next twenty minutes, eyes closed and breathing uneven.

Eventually, Harry hears the squeak of the door, and the small and soft footsteps that follow. “Can I join you?”

Harry opens his eyes, seeing her standing over him, her own eyes red. He nods. As confused as he is, sometimes he couldn’t fight his need to feel Ginny breathe against him. And that’s what she does, as she lays down on the grass next to him, unsure at first. But Harry puts his arm around her, shuffling her closer to him. She buries her face in his neck and breathes him in as Harry runs a hand through her long hair.

Some time passes before he breaks the silence. “It’s nice out.”

Ginny snorts against him. “Never knew how to properly address a tough situation, did you?”

Harry feels his face heat up, a mixture of guilt and anxiety filling him up. “Sorry.”

Ginny lifts her head, looks at him, kisses his lips lightly for a moment. “Please tell me what you’re thinking, Harry.”

Harry closes his eyes again, trying to figure out where to start. He settles upon: “I thought about it today. Earlier.”

“About what?” Ginny almost whispers.

“When we were with Teddy,” he tries. “And he changed his hair to match yours. We were eating ice cream. It was...it was a nice picture.”

“It was,” she agrees.

She stays silent after that, and Harry knows this to mean he should keep elaborating. “I thought maybe that’d be nice for us one day. Having one of our own. But I didn’t think...well, I didn’t think now.”

“You should’ve thought about that before you got me pregnant,” she says. Harry opens his eyes to see her grinning. He can’t help but laugh.

“Two people were involved in that process,” he states.

“You’re the one who forgot to perform the spell-“

“You could’ve reminded me!”

“I was a bit busy!” She exclaims. They both laugh, a weight dissolving in Harry’s lungs.

Ginny gently runs a hand through Harry’s hair, letting her hand linger on the side of his face. “It was a nice picture,” she repeats.

“Yeah,” Harry responds, still feeling unsure.

“Harry-“

“What if I’m no good at it, Gin? What if I completely fuck up this kid’s life because I’ve never...I don’t know how to...” he loses his voice.

“You won’t,” she says simply and strongly.

“It’s not that simple,” he replies, agitated.

“What if it is?” She responds fiercely. “Harry, you are so filled with love and kindness. Your mum’s love still lives inside your blood. It’s who you are. We’ve all got our baggage, but that doesn’t erase—“

“What about Voldemort?” Harry blurts out. “I mean, not Voldemort himself, he’s gone, but, death eaters and people with the same ideologies as him and-“

Ginny sighs heavily. “I knew you’d be like this,” she says; and now she’s sitting up. Harry sits up too, hugging his knees. “Harry, you can’t live your life constantly on edge because-“

“I can’t?” Harry asks angrily, his temper rising. “Ginny, I’ve got no other choice, not when-“

“Of course you do!” Ginny shouts. “If your parents thought that way, you wouldn’t even be here!”

“But _they_ would!” Harry shouts back. “I’m the reason they died. I’ll always have a target on my head because of this scar, and then what if our child comes to the same fate one day as I had as an orphan?”

“They won’t.” Ginny argues, her voice more even. “I’m pretty sure being murdered is something you don’t have to worry about anymore.”

“I’m not invincible, Gin,” he bites.

“Really? How many times did you survive Avada Kedavra? Five? Twenty?”

Harry stares at her, and he finds his anger subside immediately again as he soaks up her smirk. Ginny had a funny way of doing that to him. “Shut it.”

“I believe in you,” she says softly. “I really do. And maybe you don’t believe in yourself yet, but I’ll help as much as I can to make you believe you’ll be a good dad.”

Harry nods slowly, still feeling a bit disoriented. Ginny leans into him and kisses him hard, and Harry quickly brings his legs down, pulling her closer in, kissing her back, every emotion heightened as he pours them into the kiss. Eventually, everything becomes fuzzy, his mind dazed by Ginny’s mouth. Ginny pulls away a few minutes later to Harry’s disappointment, holding his face. “This is your chance. To have a family. Our family.”

Harry feels a new sensation at those words, one of excitement right at his heart. He nods again, unsure of how to express his current emotional state, other than telling Ginny, “I love you.”

“Love you more,” Ginny tells him as he pulls her in for another kiss.

And as Harry sits there, kissing his wife, whom he has loved for so long, knowing their child was there somehow, too, he can’t help but feel his worries diminish a little as he thinks about his little family. _His family_. Harry grins against her kiss. “Not possible.”


End file.
